


Endless Song

by LizAnn_5869



Series: Prompts and Requests [56]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Baby!Fic, F/M, Love, Memories, Sequel, Songs, daddy!tentoo, pregnancy!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 16:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7942024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizAnn_5869/pseuds/LizAnn_5869
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years ago while traveling with the Ninth Doctor,  Rose heard him singing a Gallifreyan song to young Jamie during a visit to post-WWII London.  Years later, married to to the Metacrisis Doctor, she hears that song again.  This time, her new, new, new Doctor is ready to tell her all about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Endless Song

**Author's Note:**

> This is for @timepetalsprompts "eternity" prompt, although it is not a drabble. It is a sequel to "Tender Hearted." [Tender Hearted]()

Rose loved falling back to sleep to the sound of her husband's voice on the baby monitor. Sometimes he told their four-week-old stories of traveling the stars. He would describe the nebulas and the stars and creatures they had met (but only friendly ones.). Sometimes he would sing, usually a Beatles song. He refused to do earth nursery rhymes because "who would put a baby in a tree, Rose? What kind of human does that? And Ring around the Rosie? It's about the plague. I know, I was there when it was written." He could go on and on about that subject.

Sometimes, however, she would hear him singing in the language of his lost planet. She always loved it. He had sung to Susannah in Gallefreyan the day she was born, and it had been beautiful. He told her it meant "the stars will bless you and keep you". Rose had learned the tune to that one, and she would hum it as she nursed Susannah. 

On this night, however, he began to sing something different. It was in Gallefreyan, but the tune and words didn't sound familiar at first. 

Then, it occurred to Rose that she had heard that song before. A very long time ago. He had worn leather and had blue eyes and short hair.

He had sung it to a sleeping boy in London during World War II. Rose had overheard, and had seen the tears in his eyes as he sang. She had cried along with him, wanting so much to comfort him. He wouldn't tell her then what the song was. He only told her it was a very old song, older than him.

Rose rolled over on to her back, listening. It was one thing to hear him sing it to Jamie, but listening to him sing it to his own daughter so tenderly undid her. Her tears flowed freely as he sang. She wondered if he reacted to the song as he did the last time, but his voice sounded steady until he trailed off into a whisper. "Daddy loves you, Susannah," he whispered, and only then did he sound emotional. Rose heard some rustling, then the sound of the door opening. 

The Doctor padded in quietly. As soon as he got under the covers, Rose rolled to her side and slipped an arm around his waist. "Rose? Didn't you go back to sleep? Are you crying?"

"Was listenin' to you," she whispered. The Doctor gently wiped Rose's tears. 

"Oh, Rose, you need your sleep. M'sorry I kept you awake....and made you cry."

"No, I loved it. I love when you sing to Susannah. I remember that song."

"You do? When did I ever...oh. I remember now. Me with the ears." He rolled over and wrapped his arms around Rose. She kissed his ear.

"You with the ears, yeah. I heard you singin' to Nancy's boy Jamie."

The Doctor sighed. "So long ago. Lots of living since then. I hope life was kind to them."

"So do I." They were silent for a while. "Doctor, do you remember..." She trailed off, remembering his reaction the last time she'd asked about the song. The wounds of the Time War were still too fresh for him to talk about it. This Doctor was much more open, but she still didn't know what to expect. "Do you remember when I asked you about it later on that night?"

The Doctor rolled onto his back, snuggling Rose to his chest. After a short silence he answered, "If I'm recalling it right, I think I told you 'not tonight.' I wasn't ready. I wanted to talk later, but things got...busy....with Captain Jack around."

Rose laughed quietly. "That's a good way of putting it."

The Doctor nodded with a smirk. "Would you like to know about the song?"

"Only to satisfy my own curiosity. If you're not ready, well....I've waited this long."

"It's a children's song we sang on Gallifrey. When I say 'we' I mean Gallifreyans sang it, not Time Lords. Time Lords rarely had time for singing to their children, which sounds odd to say it that way, but anyway....."

"So you never sang it to your children?"

He shook his head. "The philosophy of non-interference amongst the Time Lords extended to their families. Marriage was...basically what you'd call a business deal, children were created from Time Lord DNA. Or TNA, actually. Not a lot of family bonding happened, is what I'm trying to say."

Rose's brow furrowed. "Then I feel a bit sorry for you lot."

The Doctor sighed. "By the time I'd decided doing things this way was rubbish, the children had decided the same of me and I was only really ever close to my granddaughter Susan. I don't know how I've come to deserve this second chance I have with you, but I intend to be the father I should have been then."

Rose raised herself up to look down into his eyes. "Time to let go of that notion that you don't deserve us. You deserve the second chance you've been given, and you're a wonderful dad." He started to speak and she put her finger to his lips. "And if you say you've only been at it for four weeks, I'll scream and wake the baby and I don't think you want that!"

The Doctor began to laugh, shaking his head. "I did put a lot of work into her this evening," he chuckled. He took her hand, kissed it, and placed it over his heart. Rose lay back down, kissing him gently. 

"You were saying? About the song?"

"Oh! Right, lost the sentence....." Rose grinned at him, he rolled his eyes and pulled an exasperated face. "You're distracting. Anyway. It's a song to teach colors. I'm singing about the silver leaves, and the red sky....and how the sunrise makes the leaves look like they're on fire. Gallifrey was a beautiful place, even if some of the people weren't. I used to spend time lying in the grass, under a tree, daydreaming. Before the Academy. The memory of that made me emotional, I suppose."

Rose felt tears threatening again. "I would have loved to have seen a little you daydreaming in the grass."

"Won't be long now, before the TARDIS is ready to go. And when she is..."

Rose grinned broadly. "Different ground beneath our feet....."

"Different skies to daydream under. But in the meantime...we'd better sleep before Miss Baby wants a snack." 

Rose yawned in agreement, letting his heartbeat lull her to sleep. It wasn't long, of course, before Susannah was calling for her snack, and the cycle began again. The Doctor rallied for one more chorus of his song afterwards.

*****

Over a year later, the Doctor and Susannah were under a purple sky on chartreuse grass, watching orange clouds drift by. They were lying on a blanket in the shade of their TARDIS. 

Rose was a bit jealous that they could lie on the blanket. With the rather large bump she was sporting, it was always hard to get off the ground these days. She sat back in the comfortable chair the TARDIS had provided, watching them. 

The Doctor was singing to their sleepy girl, and now Rose could recognize many of the words. Susannah had proven to be quick study in Gallifreyan, and by extension, Rose was picking it up as well. It was a lovely legacy to give their daughter. And soon their twin sons would learn. 

She thought back on her first beloved Doctor with his tender hearts, and wondered if he could have ever imagined that one day in another universe, he wouldn't be the only one carrying the memory and the language of his planet with him. She knew that he would have dismissed the notion as impossible, as nothing he could ever hope for. Her new, new, new Doctor had told her as much.

But Rose always had a fondness for making the impossible possible. 

She patted her distended abdomen fondly. The boys were already kicking up a storm. Life was soon to become even more of an adventure. In the meantime she settled as comfortably as she could watched the Doctor and their daughter. Susannah had fallen asleep and the Doctor had rolled onto his back, hands under his head, looking up at the sky with a small smile on his face. She imagined a little boy staring up at a red sky, dreaming of other worlds.  
Rose quietly sang his song to herself and the boys. 

The Doctor heard her anyway and he sat up and smiled. Rose continued singing, hopeful that their children would carry on his legacy, and their children, and the generations after that. Their song might be eternal, for all she knew.

**Author's Note:**

> My 100th fic on AO3!


End file.
